INTERNATIONAL PRACTICAL SHOOTING CONFEDERATION Minutes of the Thirtieth General Assembly Kavala, Greece, 9:00 Am Monday, 4 September 2006
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INTERNATIONAL PRACTICAL SHOOTING CONFEDERATION Minutes of the Thirtieth General Assembly Kavala, Greece, 9:00 am Monday, 4 September 2006 ADMINISTRATION 1) IPSC Secretary to present a list of voting Regions and proxies Executive Council Present: IPSC President Mr. Nick Alexakos IPSC General Secretary Mr. Fritz Gepperth IPSC Secretary Mr. Vince Pinto IPSC Treasurer Mr. Ren Henderson IROA President Mr. Dino Evangelinos IROA Vice-president Mr. Juergen Tegge Regions Present: 21 Australia Mr. Des Lilley Belgium Mr. Yvan Vogels Czech Republic Mr. Josef Horejsi Denmark Mr. Tim Andersen Ecuador Mr. Victor Ferrero Finland Mr. Timo McKeown France Mr. Alain Joly Germany Mr. Fritz Gepperth Greece Mr. Dimitrios Tzimas Hong Kong Mr. Vince Pinto (alternate) Israel Mr. Nachum Zarzif Italy Mr. Riccardo Massantini Netherlands Mr. Kees Guichelaar Norway Mr. Geir Owe Philippines Mr. Rey Ganaban (alternate) Russia Mr. Vitaly Kryushin Slovak Republic Mr. Damjian Pesek South Africa Mr. Daan Kemp Switzerland Mr. Milan Stojanovic Thailand Mr. Peter Walker (alternate) United Kingdom Mr. Graham Gill Voting Regions: (36) The following Regions were eligible to vote and were either present at the meeting or submitted a valid proxy form, as indicated by italics: Argentina Aruba Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Canada Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Indonesia Israel Italy Macau Malta Netherlands New Zealand Norway Papua New Guinea Philippines Russia Singapore Slovenia South Africa Switzerland Thailand United Kingdom United States Venezuela Zimbabwe 2) IPSC President to appoint two tellers Mr. Myro Lopez (PHI) Mr. Joey Racaza (PHI) 3) IPSC Executive Council Reports Individual verbal reports were given by each Executive Council member. IPSC President Regional Directors, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen... Welcome to the 30th General Assembly of the International Practical Shooting Confederation. First, let me begin by thanking IPSC Greece for hosting this General Assembly and, of course, for hosting this most exciting European Shotgun Championship. Because this General Assembly marks our 30th anniversary, I thought I would begin by sharing with you some historic background that forms the origins of practical shooting. No individual did more to develop practical handgun shooting than Jeff Cooper. A retired colonel in the US military, he was influenced by a number of people who also made major contributions to practical marksmanship. Two such men were Majors Fairbairn and Sykes of the British military, who in the 1930s were in charge of training the Shanghai police. These two gentlemen developed training techniques with semi-auto pistols and Fairbairn later wrote a book about his Shanghai experiences called "Shooting To Live with the One- Hand Gun." Jeff Cooper made reference to this book many times in his own writings. Another influential person was Ed McGivern, a handgun enthusiast from Montana who had the time and ability to learn skills with a revolver that have seldom been equaled. He was also a supporter of ‘practical’ shooting, and in his book, published in 1937 he used the term ‘practical shooting’ to describe a style of shooting. The 1950's saw great interest in the Old West, western movies, and cowboys. So it was no surprise that there was considerable activity in ‘fast draw’ competition using western rigs and single-action revolvers. Many movie and television stars at the time made much of their great fast draw abilities. By the later 1950’s it was estimated that over 5,000 fans were slapping leather from coast to coast in the United States. There is no way of estimating how many more indulged in the past time, but the number had to be considerable. However, the lack of proper training, or in many cases, no training at all led to dozens of accidents by people who were ‘slow on the draw and quick on the trigger.’ The increase in accidents were giving the shooting sports a black eye and something had to be done. The answer was to allow only wax loads and blanks to be used in fast draw. For Jeff Cooper and his friends, the idea of using guns to make a fast noise seemed pretty silly and so they initiated their own ‘Leatherslap’ competition at Big Bear Lake, California using only balloon targets at first. The shooter to break his balloon first won, and full power ammunition was used. These events proved so popular that competitors asked for a match every month, and the Bear Valley Gunslingers was formed. Jeff Cooper said of that time, "In those days our primitive pistol matches were conceived primarily as an amusement but with a secondary goal of creative adventure. None of us knew exactly what he was trying to accomplish, apart from firing a better score than his comrades, but we had a great deal of fun and we learned by doing." The most striking feature of this competition was that it was relatively unrestricted. Calibers had to be full power .38 Special or better, but otherwise equipment, shooting position, etc. were up to the shooter. One result of this was that a Deputy Sheriff named Jack Weaver started to win. While other shooters were still single handed hip shooting, Jack Weaver would take his gun in both hands, take it to eye level, and fire. Time and again he showed that he wouldn't always get off the first shot, but he would win by scoring the first hit. The 1960's and early 1970's saw continuous growth and development of practical shooting. Jeff Cooper had a huge reading audience through his column in Guns & Ammo, and generated world-wide interest in this new sport. He wrote, "It was apparent we had something new and attractive. All over the free world sportsmen were beginning to discover that there were more exciting and relevant ways to pursue sport with their firearms than they had known before. By 1973 it was evident the time had come for a world-wide organization of sportsmen seeking further excellence in competition with sidearms." On May 24, 1976, the Columbia Conference was held at Columbia, Missouri. In Cooper's words, it was "a meeting of enthusiasts throughout both the United States and the world, attempting to devise some sort of international organization. With no authority but our own enthusiasm we set up the International Practical Shooting Confederation, with representation in fourteen nations." At the conclusion of the Columbia conference, a constitution was established and the IPSC was officially formed. Jeff Cooper acted as chairman of the conference and was elected the first IPSC world president. To really appreciate the extent of the practical shooting revolution, consider the handgun shooting scene in the 1960’s. The only international handgun competition was at the Olympics, and in the United States the NRA bullseye course was the accepted standard. The pistol of choice was a revolver. There were no moderately priced progressive reloaders, no electronic timers, and no race guns. There were few gun magazines, and none dedicated solely to handguns. Television and movie detectives carried snub-nosed revolvers and fired them one-handed from the hip. A lot of rounds have gone downrange since Jeff Cooper and his friends started slapping leather back in 1956… and for that we will always be eternally grateful. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I am pleased to report that last year we continued our upward trend. Global memberships were up on average 4% and our Level III competitions increased by almost 10%. Every year IPSC grows and strengthens because of the hard work of our Regional Directors and on behalf of the IPSC Executive Council, I would like to thank all of you for your tremendous effort. I would also like to thank the IPSC Executive Council: Mr. Fritz Gepperth - IPSC General Secretary Mr. Ren Henderson - IPSC Treasurer Mr. Vince Pinto - IPSC Secretary Mr. Dino Evangelinos - IROA President Mr. Juergen Tegge - IROA Vice-President And thank the members of the President's Council: Mr. Tim Andersen (DEN) Mr. Neil Beverley (GBR) Mr. Bob Chittleborough (GBR) Mr. Victor Ferrero (ECU) Mr. Luiz Frota (BRA) Mr. Alain Joly (FRA) Mr. Michael Voigt (USA) I would also like to thank our IPSC webmaster, Mr. Ian Fachie, who thanklessly manages our web site, Mr. Chris Zielinski for his continuing work with WinMSS, and the Committee Chairmen for their work and deliberations. Our future remains full of challenges… and promise. Now it’s up to all of us to carry the torch for the next 30 years. DVC Nick Alexakos IPSC President 4) Introduction of, and brief report from, each Regional Director Each Regional Director spoke briefly about the latest news from their respective Regions. 5) Approval of the minutes of the Twenty-Ninth IPSC General Assembly 1. Motion: That the minutes of the previous Assembly held in Guayaquil, Ecuador on 20 August 2005 as circulated to the Regions be accepted. Moved: Australia Seconded: Norway Carried: For-36 Against-0 Abstain-0 6) IPSC Treasurer's Report and approval of the previous year's accounts 2. Motion: That the 2005 accounts as circulated to the Regions be accepted. Moved: Netherlands Seconded: Denmark Carried: For-35 Against-0 Abstain-1 7) Appointment of an auditor 3. Motion: That the chartered accounting firm of Kapadia and Company, Chartered Accountants, be appointed as Auditors for financial year 2006. Moved: Greece Seconded: Finland Carried: For-36 Against-0 Abstain-0 8) IPSC Development Plan 4. Motion: That the 2006 IPSC Development Plan be approved. Moved: Finland Seconded: Germany Carried: For-36 Against-0 Abstain-0 It was recommended that future IPSC Development Plans only be submitted at the General Assembly held in conjunction with a World Shoot. 9) Regional Development Director’s Report A report was given by Chairman Vince Pinto on the work of this committee, which is comprised of Chepit Dulay (PHI), Victor Ferrero (ECU), Fritz Gepperth (GER) and Rico Viljoen (NAM).